Independent participatory media for Iran

In the final days leading up to Iranian New Year on March 20, two children’s rights activists were arrested in Kerman.

Emrooz website reports that Sarah Haj-Bahrami and Ali Divsalar were arrested last week and transferred to Kerman Prison.

The two activists have been accused of cooperating with Baha’is and are now held incommunicado in prison.

After the Bam earthquake in 2003, Haj-Bahrami and Divsalar founded an organization to help the child victims of the disaster, which left 42 thousand dead, 50 thousand injured and more than 100 thousand people homeless. The organization was active as a legal entity until the day of their arrest.

Divsalar is also an executive member of the Association for the Defence of Children’s Rights and, after Nasrin Sotoudeh, is the second member of this organization to be arrested by the Islamic Republic.

The Association for the Defence of Children’s Rights is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit organization that was established in 1994 to “promote the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

Last week Iranian authorities arrested a number of Baha’is, claiming they had been using a children’s organization in Kerman as a front to carry out anti-government activities.